Lambert to Perform With Queen at Sonisphere Fest

BY Trudy Ring

February 21 2012 7:15 PM ET

It’s official: Adam Lambert will perform with Queen at the Sonisphere festival this summer in England, and Brian May says Freddie Mercury would approve.

On the Red Carpet reports that Lambert has confirmed he will appear with May, the guitarist for the flamboyant 1970s–’80s rock group, and Roger Taylor, its drummer, on the second day of the festival at Knebworth Park in Stevenage, north of London, as a U.K. tabloid had reported earlier this month.

Late Monday, Lambert tweeted, “As many suspected, I can finally confirm: I have been invited by Queen to sing one very special concert! Sonisphere at Knebworth July 7th! Sorry to be coy about the details the past few weeks, but I made a promise to keep it under wraps as best I could. Gonna be a surreal night!”

May released a statement saying, “I’m sure Adam would meet with Freddie’s approval! And what better place to revisit, and walk those emotional paths than Knebworth?” That was where Mercury, who died in 1991, gave his last performance with Queen, in 1986. May also said Lambert’s appearance at the show “will make a lot of people very happy.”

Lambert, an American Idol runner-up and former Advocate cover man, has several connections with Queen. He sang the band’s hit “Bohemian Rhapsody” in his Idol audition, performed with May on the show’s 2009 season finale, and did a medley of the group’s songs with May and Taylor at the MTV Europe Music Awards last November. There has been speculation that the out glam-rocker would succeed the not-quite-out Mercury as Queen’s front man, but so far the Sonisphere appearance is the only gig he has scheduled with the band.